Meet Healthcode’s Test Lead
Tell us about your job?
My role is to test our products and make sure any faults are fixed before they’re rolled out to customers.
Each day, I play the role of an ordinary user and hunt systematically for issues on the system that might make it more difficult to carry out their tasks, such as where our user interface isn’t intuitive for a newcomer. In addition, our customer services team will sometimes need to escalate issues and anything that relates to the system is usually sent to me.
It’s up to me to analyse problems, define what we need to do for our developers and test the solutions they’ve put in place. Before I sign-off every job, I must be satisfied that we’ve addressed the problem and delivered the best outcome for our customers.
What qualities do you need to be a tester?
To be a good tester, you need to be analytical and focus on the detail of one small bit of the system at a time to pinpoint faults. At the same time, fixing issues requires a lot of technical knowledge and problem-solving skills because there’s always a risk that changing one thing might break ten other things on the system. You need to understand what approach will work best for each problem and work in partnership with other teams to co-ordinate the next steps.
While it can be challenging, I started my Healthcode career in customer services so that informs my perspective and gives real meaning to what I do now.
Can you give an example of how you’ve been able to make a difference for customers?
A customer reported a problem with printing invoices using their document template. I needed to find out where the system had broken and communicate that to our software team and I also needed to find a ‘work around’ for the customer before the next invoice run the following Monday. We couldn’t just say: ‘leave it with us, we’ll get back to you in a couple of weeks’ when they were waiting to send out hundreds of invoices.
While it was a stressful few days, I’m proud to say that the team found a way to mitigate the problem by Thursday that week so the customer could print their invoices on time. It’s an example of how we’ll always be proactive and find a solution whenever possible. Even though I’m not in a customer-facing role, I work closely with our account managers who are in direct contact with customers and I’m always happy to help with technical issues.
How has the testing process evolved?
We now have multiple products in development at the same time so it’s impossible for one person to test everything. Instead, our engineers are constantly testing new features and we’re getting customers involved in early development pilots, such as the ePractice diary, so we can use their feedback to drive improvements.
About 80% of my current workload is testing systems that customers are using today. For example, it’s important to ensure that everything still works seamlessly for customers as we migrate to the next generation of ePractice and integrate exciting new features like Care Pathways and ePrescribing which should transform practice management software as they know it.
What do you like best about working for Healthcode?
I work closely with other teams across the company, from customer services and account managers to software developers in the UK and overseas and I really appreciate the work ethic and the collaborative culture here. I’ve always found that colleagues are ready to help in any way they can and everyone’s contribution is recognised and appreciated.
And finally, what do you do to relax outside work?
I enjoy football although it has to be as a spectator these days because a knee injury prevents me from playing. I like Arsenal but I’m not a diehard fan and I’ll watch any team as long as they’re playing well.
Away from sport, I like visiting museums and travelling to interesting places. I’m currently saving up for new adventures after I went back to see my family in Mexico last year. While I was there, I went to a few places that I’d visited when I lived there 17 years ago and I was so impressed by how much the country had developed.
My other passion is classical guitar. I used to play a lot as a teen when I wanted to be a musician and I still love playing. In fact, I probably enjoy it more now that it doesn’t feel like homework.
